Spielberg Arranges Bank Loans for Tintin Production

One the reasons behind the late start to the shooting of the Tintin movie was Spielberg’s breakaway from Paramount Studios with his Dreamworks production company. This coincided with the banking crisis making it very hard for Spielberg to get funding for Tintin.

That was resolved sometime ago but now Spielberg appears to have secured long-term financing for his company.

But getting money, even for Hollywood’s most bankable director, didn’t come without strings. These sources have confirmed that to get the loan the new DreamWorks was forced to reduce the risk to banks to unheard-of levels. As part of the new debt agreement, Spielberg and company will be required to put up half the money for each film that it puts into production—much more than the 20% or less that studios traditionally have put up when they have bank lines to cover the rest. There is also a provision, still not fully fleshed out, that might require DreamWorks to put up more money under specific circumstances if the film doesn’t hit certain targets, according to one source who has seen the loan documents. DreamWorks would not comment on the pending loan.

Source: Loan Deal for Spielberg Is Near